A Filipino of compact proportions but colossal talent and courage is king of the gymnastics world.
Carlos Edriel Yulo came through with a performance to remember in the floor exercise and captured the historic first gold medal for the country in the 49th FIG World Artistic Championships in Stuttgart, Germany Saturday night.
Performing second to last among eight finalists, the 19-year-old Yulo was both breathtaking and flawless in exquisite routines to tally 15.300 points, ahead by the slimmest of margins of top qualifier and Olympian Artem Dolgopyat of Israel (15.200) and multiple world champion Xiao Routeng of China (14.933).
With dizzying multiple twists and aerial acrobatics, he scored 8.800 in execution with a 6.500 degree of difficulty – the highest level among the competitors.
Raising the degree of difficulty from 6.2 paid off for Yulo as he became the first Filipino world champion in the discipline.
He already made history in his debut appearance in Doha, Qatar last year after becoming the first Filipino and male Southeast Asian gymnast to win a medal at the World Championships with a bronze in the same event.
It wasn’t enough for the diminutive dynamo.
“Actually last year, I was looking at my medal and I was like, ‘I will get the gold medal next year,’” Yulo said in a television interview with the Olympic Channel.
“(Winning the gold right now), it’s ridiculous. I don’t know.”
The 4-foot-11 Yulo, whose humble beginnings started at local multisport grassroots tournaments like the Batang Pinoy and Palarong Pambansa, already punched ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics last Friday in the men’s all-around – the second Filipino to do so next to pole vaulter EJ Obiena. (Kristel Satumbaga)
